Safety

Within the framework of our responsibility for safety, preventing accidents and incidents in day-to-day work, in the operation of production facilities, and on work-related travel and transportation routes where people or the environment may suffer harm or damage has top priority for Bayer. Responsibilities and framework conditions are defined in appropriate directives and corporate policies. The overriding principle is always safety first.

Occupational health and safety

Safeguarding the occupational health and safety of our employees, and of the employees of contractors and suppliers on our company premises and under the supervision of Bayer, is one of our core tasks. This entails preventing work-related accidents and occupational illnesses, assessing potential hazards, ensuring comprehensive risk management and creating a healthy working environment.

Group target 2020:

reduction of 35% in occupational safety incident rate (RIR)

The basis of our reporting on occupational injuries is the Recordable Incident Rate (RIR), which covers all injuries to employees requiring medical treatment that goes beyond simple first aid. This includes injuries and occupational illnesses both with and without lost workdays. In 2017, the RIR climbed to 0.45 cases per 200,000 hours worked, corresponding to 493 occupational injuries worldwide. This means that, in statistical terms, one recordable incident occurred for almost every 440,000 hours worked. Reportable injuries with lost workdays comprised 302 of the total of 493 occupational injuries, meaning that the corresponding parameter, the Lost Time Recordable Incident Rate (LTRIR), edged up to 0.28 in 2017.

Online Annex: A 1.4.3.2-1

Occupational illnesses are included in both parameters (LTRIR and RIR), regardless of whether or not they are listed in national registers of occupational diseases. As lists of occupational diseases are not globally standardized and in many countries do not exist at all, we document all occupational illnesses, provided they have been diagnosed and recognized by a physician. Five new cases of occupational illnesses were reported throughout the Bayer Group in 2017. These were related to the musculoskeletal system and noise-induced hearing impairments among other issues.

Bayer universally and regularly subjects all workplaces to a health-related risk assessment and a hazard analysis. These analyses are used to derive measures that, in conjunction with targeted studies, are designed to prevent occupational illnesses. As part of our occupational health and safety policy, we offer our employees regular medical examinations – in some cases on a mandatory basis – in all countries in which this is legally permissible. The focus here is on the risks that exist at each workplace. Furthermore, all respective country-specific provisions for mandatory examinations are complied with.

As in previous years, we hardly recorded any accidents (less than 5%) involving contact with chemicals in 2017. A significant proportion of the accidents and injuries suffered by our employees have behavior-linked causes. Our Behavioral Safety Program is addressing this challenge with suitable training measures. Almost 8,500 employees have been trained at 120 sites worldwide since 2015. Significant behavioral improvements were achieved in areas in which the program has already been implemented, and the Recordable Incident Rate is therefore expected to decline across the Group in the medium term.

Process and plant safety

We aim to design and operate our processes and production facilities in such a way that they do not pose any inappropriate risks to employees, the environment or the community. Bayer is therefore continuously working to further develop the safety culture, the expertise of employees and the globally applicable corporate policies on process and plant safety, which prescribe uniform procedures and standards for identifying risks and defining safety measures, and thus ensure a uniform safety level at all production sites. Compliance with internal and external safety regulations is verified in internal audits by a team of plant safety experts.

Bayer operates a central competence center for process and plant safety in Germany and regional hubs in Asia and North, Central and South America that interlink safety experts from all production sites. In a key move toward further standardization, the central competence center has introduced a globally valid training and certification program for safety experts.

Online Annex: A 1.4.3.2-3

Participation in our TOPPS (Top Performance in Process and Plant Safety) training program is compulsory for all Bayer employees who are able to influence process and plant safety at production and auxiliary facilities, and is documented in the Bayer training system. TOPPS training materials for both classroom and web-based training are available in several languages.

A globally standardized key performance indicator (KPI) – Loss of Primary Containment (LoPC material release / leakages) – is used at Bayer as an early indicator for plant safety incidents and is integrated into Group-wide safety reporting. LoPC incidents refer to the leakage of chemical substances or energy in amounts above defined thresholds from their primary containment, such as pipelines, pumps, tanks or drums. The LoPC Incident Rate (LoPC-IR) indicates the number of LoPC incidents per 200,000 work hours. In 2017, the LoPC-IR was 0.13 (2016: 0.17). Bayer’s LoPC reporting is based on the requirements of the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC), which apply uniformly throughout Europe.

Group target 2020:

reduction of 30% in process and plant safety incidents

Online Annex: A 1.4.3.2-4

The causes of every reported LoPC incident are analyzed and the incident published across the Group. The reporting threshold was intentionally set at such a low level that even material and energy leaks that have no impact on employees, neighbors or the environment are systematically recorded and reported. This approach supports our commitment to maintain the integrity of our facilities.

Transportation safety

Transportation safety plays a key role both in the transportation of our products on public routes and in loading, unloading, classification, labeling and packaging, particularly of hazardous goods. The implementation of a dedicated corporate policy ensures that all materials are handled and transported in line with applicable regulations and the potential hazard they pose. As part of our voluntary Responsible Care™ activities, transportation safety instructions are also drawn up for nonhazardous materials and corresponding transportation safety audits performed worldwide. In addition to legally required training courses, we use special electronic training measures to convey specialist knowledge that are also open to service providers. Transportation and storage safety is a part of HSE management and is implemented by a network of experts and users with practical experience who cooperate across divisional and regional lines. Details are specified in the corporate policies “Transportation Safety” and “Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQHSEQstands for health, safety, environment and quality.) Audits.” Apart from internal Bayer specifications the international regulations of the WHO and/or Crop Life International also apply as standards.

Number of Transport Incidents

In 2017, data recording on transportation movements was extended to all segments. In total, almost six million consignments were transported in 2017. Despite our extensive safety precautions and training activities, residual risks can result in transport incidents. At Bayer, these include accidents that cause personal injury, and significant damage to property, and environmental impact resulting from the release of substances, or leakage of hazardous goods. They are recorded in detail and assessed based on defined criteria. All nine transport incidents in 2017 were traffic accidents. Two of the transport incidents were also classed as environmental incidents.

Online Annex: A 1.4.3.2-5

The table provides an overview of the transport and environmental incidents in 2017.

Transport and Environmental Incidents 20171

Transport

Environmental

Personal injury

Crop Science, Hofu, Japan, February 6, 2017
On an icy road, a truck collided with several other vehicles. No product leaked out.

X

No

Crop Science, Monheim, Germany, February 13, 2017
While transporting a Bayer product, a truck left the road and the driver suffered a slight injury. No product leaked out.

X

Yes

Crop Science, Belford Roxo, Brazil, February 18, 2017
An accident occurred in which a truck transporting a Bayer product was hit by a gas truck. All the vehicles involved caught fire. The product released was cleaned up and disposed of in a professional manner.

X

No

Crop Science, Mereville, France, August 23, 2017
A truck caught fire during transportation. The product contained in the trailer leaked out but could be cleaned up and disposed of in a professional manner. There was no environmental impact.

X

No

Crop Science, Belford Roxo, Brazil, September 16, 2017
During transportation a truck lost part of its load. The product was cleaned up and disposed of in a professional manner.

X

No

Crop Science, Belford Roxo, Brazil, November 6, 2017
A truck collided front-on with a car trying to overtake. The car driver died. The truck driver was not injured. The majority of the liquid Bayer load was pumped off, some of it burnt off and the rest of the product was cleaned up and disposed of in a professional manner.

X

X

Yes

Crop Science, Yuki, Japan, November 14, 2017
During transportation on Bayer premises, an intermediate bulk container (IBC) that had been wrongly secured by the disposal company and was filled with wastewater from Bayer was torn open and the contents leaked out. Most of the wastewater could be cleaned up and disposed of in a professional manner.

X

No

Crop Science, Belford Roxo, Brazil, November 17, 2017
The driver of a truck lost control over the vehicle, which then caught fire. Part of the load burnt off while the remaining product entered the soil. The contaminated soil was ablated and disposed of in a professional manner.

X

X

No

Crop Science, Belford Roxo, Brazil, December 7, 2017
The driver of a truck lost control over the vehicle. Product leaked out, most of which was cleaned up and disposed of in a professional manner. There was no environmental impact.

X

No

1 Standard practice at Bayer is to record all personal injuries (also of third persons) reported to us in connection with our business activities. A difference between the number of fatalities in Table “Recordable Occupational Injuries” and this table may occur because for occupational injuries, by definition, we show only fatalities of Bayer and contractor employees who were under immediate Bayer supervision.